US special envoy to Ukraine resigns amid whistleblower scandal

President said to have cited the fact as reason he was unconcerned over 2016 interference by Moscow; US special envoy to Ukraine resigns amid whistleblower scandal

By Agencies

US President Donald Trump told Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the US he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US elections because Washington did the same in other countries, The Washington Post reporting late Friday.

The paper cited three former officials who requested anonymity to discuss details of the May 2017 Oval Office meeting, during which he famously revealed highly classified information on the Islamic State group.

The comments reportedly alarmed White House officials who restricted access to a memorandum

Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders, as well as administration efforts to bury their contents, have come under increasing scrutiny amid spiraling accusations the US leader sought to pressure Ukraine to conduct an investigation into his potential 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden, and a possible White House cover-up.

Also Friday, Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to NATO caught in the middle of a whistleblower complaint over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, resigned from his post as special envoy to the Eastern European nation, according to a US official.

The official said Volker told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday of his decision to leave the job, following disclosures that he had connected Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani with Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family over allegedly corrupt business dealings.

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Joel Cholo Brooks is a Liberian journalist who previously worked for several international news outlets including the BBC African Service. He is the CEO of the Global News Network which publishes two local weeklies, The Star and The GNN-Liberia Newspapers. He is a member of the Press Union Of Liberia (PUL) since 1986, and several other international organizations of journalists, and is currently contributing to the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation as Liberia Correspondent.